Snow Day
by NatureGirl52180
Summary: There’s nothing like a snow day. Especially when seven people and one tiger are forced to occupy the same space for 24 hours. How does a Wildfire Warrior cope with sub-freezing temperatures? And will Mia murder them all before the day is out?


_This was inspired by a snow storm we had just the other day. One in which I did NOT get to do any of the things our boys did. (I had to go to work). This is just for fun. Hope it makes you laugh!_

_~Tamesis_

* * *

Ever since he was a kid, Rowen had always known when snow had fallen overnight. There was a stillness, a peacefulness that would always creep in from the landscape and permeate the house, muting the sounds of the outside world and bringing a restfulness. With a little imagination, he could really believe that he was cut off from the outside world. No intrusions. No obligations. He loved it.

Rolling to his side, he stretched languidly in his bed and looked to the window. Snowflakes were still swirling beyond the pane and a large mound of snow covered the sill. He watched it for a few more minutes before sighing and swinging his stocking feet to the floor. Running a hand through his tousled blue hair, he went to the window, feeling the ice-cold air as it stole around the frame and reached his skin.

The weather man never got it right for the mountains. Last night, he had predicted a few inches at most. At Rowen's best guess, there was at least two feet out there. It was a good amount: enough to be fun, but not enough to barricade them in the manor.

The pulse of music reverberated up through the floor. Obviously, he wasn't the only one awake. Of course, Sage had been up at some obscene hour anyway to workout and practice. The blonde had some weird internal clock that would wake him at 5 a.m. every morning regardless if it was a weekend, a holiday, or a completely different time zone. Rowen appreciated a good early morning workout as much as the next guy, but there were just some days that were tailor made for sleeping in.

Grabbing a sweatshirt to ward off the chill of Mia's large house, Rowen headed from the room and along the balcony that ringed the Great Room, the large, central room of the home that housed the formal dining table. After descending the stairs, he got a bit of running start and slid across the hardwood floors in his socks towards the kitchen.

Music blared from the small portable radio that sat on the counter. Beside the stove, Kento was singing along and flipping pancakes on the range. Rowen caught sight of Cye coming out of the fridge with a pitcher of orange juice. The Torrent Warrior cringed a bit as Kento screeched through the high notes. "Wouldn't care to leave my eardrums intact, would you?"

Kento's only response was to increase the volume and begin drumming on the granite countertop with a wooden spoon. Cye glared back before sidling in and snagging the plate holding a large stack of hot pancakes from right beside Kento. The larger swore and lashed out viciously with the spoon, but Cye was too fast. He neatly sidestepped the attack and brought the 'cakes to the table. Further pursuit by Kento was averted, thanks to the fact that Kento was more concerned with burning the food he still had on the range then actually retaliating. He opened the cupboard and reached for another plate. "Damn, dirty thief."

Cye was nonplussed and with a nod of his head invited Rowen to join him as he moved some of Mia's papers out of the way to clear them a place to eat. Already, a stack of plates and silverware sat in the middle of the table. After pulling a couple of the pancakes off for himself he handed the plate to Rowen. Rowen immediately handed back the bottle of maple syrup. Cye grinned broadly and proceeded to dump half the bottle of the sweet brown liquid on his breakfast before handing it back.

Cye's maple syrup fixation was entirely Rowen's fault. He had offered to go food shopping with Mia. It was in a natural foods store that he had spotted the bottle on the shelf, good old Vermont Maple Syrup. It was odd, the things that could inspire homesickness and nostalgia. Rowen had found himself craving a stack of pancakes from the little diner around the corner from his mom's apartment in Brooklyn where she used to take him to breakfast on Sundays. Of course, that was before the Armor of Strata had chosen him and called him to Japan.

Before his journey half way around the world, Rowen had never considered the fact that there were places in the world devoid of maple syrup. Frankly, there were more important things to worry about, what with the evil being from another dimension trying to overtake the mortals and all. Rowen had learned later that Maple syrup was a product one could only produce in North America, which meant that Cye had been raised in pretty much a Maple-free zone. It had taken Rowen a while to get Cye to taste it, but afterwards, he was thoroughly addicted. Rowen had felt it his obligation to 'feed the habit' ever since.

"You know, if you hadn't lost the Colonies, you would have had a steady stream of that stuff." Rowen said nonchalantly as he started in on his own breakfast.

Cye snorted. "Trust me, mate, it was your loss not ours."

Rowen laughed a little before changing the subject. "Anyone else up yet?"

"Confucius is in the basement meditating." Kento replied. His reference to Sage got a laugh from Cye. "Mia was in her office. I think she's still working on that paper."

'That paper' was actually Mia's dissertation. After the battle with the Nether Realm, Mia had once again resumed her academic career at the University of Toyoma. Hoping to follow in her grandfather's footsteps, Mia was currently working her way through her final semester in the university's Archaeology and Ancient Japanese History programs. The workload was leaving her frazzled.

"Where's Yuli?" Rowen inquired. Though now reunited with his parents, the young boy still spent a great deal of time at Mia's home, still drawn to the Ronins by his hero-worship. Occasionally, he would be allowed to spend a weekend in their company. Though his folks were in the dark about what precisely had happened to their son in those days during the war, they accepted that some sort of bond had been formed between their child and the older boys. They trusted them to take care of Yuli and Rowen appreciated that.

"He was watching cartoons down in the living room." Cye spoke up. "I think he's waiting for Ryo to wake up."

"Our fearless leader is still a-bed, then?" Rowen poured himself some juice.

"If sleeping was an Olympic sport, Ryo would have won the gold a long time ago, man." Kento smirked as he lifted a pancake from the skillet.

"I heard that."

Ryo always looked like he'd had a bad night's sleep. His wild mane of dark hair stuck out at all angles as he staggered into the kitchen, scratching his stomach absently through the gray T-shirt he wore. Behind him, the tiger White Blaze strode deliberately.

"'Mornin' Ryo."

Rowen was rewarded with a grunt as Ryo opened the kitchen door and let the large cat out into the yard. The animal bounded through the snow and was soon lost from their sight as he disappeared among the trees after his own breakfast. Ryo stood for a moment with the door open, staring at the snow as though he had never seen anything like it before. The others watched him and after a few seconds, he made a face and shut the door. "It's cold out."

"He's not fully conscious yet." Kento mumbled before holding up three fingers and calling. "Hey Ryo, how many fingers?"

"You're a laugh riot. OW!" Ryo rubbed his right bicep. He had reached for the pancakes on the counter and received a blow from Kento's Spoon of Vengeance.

"Make your own food." Kento growled before turning towards the coffee pot. Ryo made a rude hand gesture and picked up the plate anyway.

Kento made no comment when he turned around and his breakfast was gone. He merely brought his coffee mug to the table and began to load down his own plate. "Looks like we've got ourselves a snow day, what are we going to do with it?"

"Can we go sledding?" Yuli bounded into the room, bright and boisterous as always. "Mornin' guys!"

"Hey, dude!" Kento pulled out the chair next to him and Yuli climbed up. "Absolutely. Right after breakfast."

"First things first." Sage's voice preempted his arrival in the kitchen. The Warrior of Light entered wearing his loose-fitting work-out attire and went to the fridge. After he rummaged around for a few seconds he came up with a large orange. "We have a driveway to shovel out."

"Man," Kento made a face at him, "You really know how to suck the life right out of a room."

"It needs to be done." Sage sat down calmly next to Cye.

Kento eyed the fruit in Sage's hand. "That'll stunt your growth, dude."

Sage pretended not to hear as he continued to peel the orange and Kento made a show of slurping up his coffee. The Warrior of Hardrock made a nasty face before moving on. "Cye quit hogging the syrup."

With that, he reached across the table with a blundering arm. His elbow hit the nearly full pitcher of orange juice, knocking it neatly over.

"Way to go, Grace." Rowen hissed as he slid back from the table, watching the liquid flow off of the table. Cye was already moving, grabbing a dishtowel from the counter and tossing it to Rowen. He caught it, but was too slow to stop the juice from being soaked into the stack of papers they had moved for breakfast. Quickly, Kento and Sage began to move them, but already the bottom pages were soaked through.

Sage held up a page watching as the juice dribbled off and back to the table. "I hope this wasn't important."

"Have you guys seen my-" Mia, dressed casually in a sweat shirt and jeans turned the corner into the kitchen and was cut short by the sight of the soaked page Sage held before him. The blonde quickly put it down. "Please tell me that isn't what I think it is."

When no one answered, she stepped towards the table and let out a sigh. "Great. Just great. I had this section all scribbled out. Now I can barely read it."

"Mia, I'm sorry." Kento spoke up quickly. "I just knocked over the pitcher and-"

"It's okay." Her tone sounded like it really was okay. Almost. "I shouldn't have left it out. Could you guys just clear the table completely next time?"

"Sure Mia." Ryo replied. He was a little more alert now, after the drama. "How 'bout some breakfast?"

""Eh." She waved a distracted hand at them as she gathered her sopping pages, put a towel under them and headed back to her study.

There was a few seconds of quiet before Kento finally spoke up. "Okay. Driveway. Right after breakfast."

"Going to dig your way out of the doghouse?" Rowen quipped.

"Whatever it takes, man." Kento shook his head. "The Wrath of Mia is something to fear."

* * *

"This is stupid."

From beneath his knit cap, Rowen looked up at Kento as the strong Ronin swung a shovel full of snow over his shoulder. "Why?"

Sage threw him a dirty look, eyes just visible above the scarf he wore. What Rowen had done could be construed as encouraging Kento to whine. Sage didn't like whining.

"This driveway has got to be four miles long." Kento heaved again. "And there is technology available now that makes this job a whole lot easier."

Rowen had to concur. The fact of the matter was that he was beginning to sweat under his mummifying layers of clothing despite the cold. Even though he was in excellent shape, his muscles were screaming for mercy. Fortunately, the snow was light and powdery. Not the thick wet stuff that made shoveling Hell on Earth.

"Ryo's using the snow blower up at the house to clear off the parking pad." Cye pointed out. "He said he'd come down with it if there was enough gas."

"If there was enough gas." Kento repeated in a grumble. "Tell him to armor up and melt the damned stuff off the asphalt."

"Okay," Sage said with a long-suffering countenance, "for the thirty-seventh time . . ."

"Oh, for cripes sake." Kento breathed. "Are we going to have a long, drawn out discussion about morals?"

Rowen was trying not to smile, but it was hard with Cye leaning on his shovel, grinning expectantly. Sage and Kento had participated in this particular debate several times. Sage's belief was that the powers of the armors should only be used when absolutely necessary. Kento disagreed, arguing that if they had the power, why not use them? He didn't seem to believe that they would all be on shaky moral ground if Cye refilled a water glass without actually getting out of his chair.

Sage used his shovel to push some of the powder from the driveway. "It's wrong for us to use our powers for anything other than the protection of innocent lives."

"I'm not talking about destroying Tokyo or anything." Kento replied.

"You might be if Ryo gets too worked up, mate." Cye put in.

"See," Kento turned to Sage. "It would give him the opportunity to practice control."

"Kento, you can not use the armors to get out of a little extra work." Sage stated.

"Or to avoid air fare." Rowen put in.

Kento grinned. "That was a theoretical situation."

"How is 'Rowen, I'll give you fifty bucks if you fly me to Maui' a theoretical situation."

"Joke's on you. It was the fifty bucks that was theoretical."

"I'll keep that in mind."

The end of the driveway was in sight as White Blaze plowed through the snow towards them, Yuli riding on his back. The child giggled as the tiger jumped through the snow, leaving long, deep tracks in the yard. Ryo was coming down the driveway towards them carrying a shovel. Kento sighed. "Guess there wasn't enough gas."

Sage looked up as well, watching as the Wildfire Warrior as he approached. "God, he looks like the Michelin man."

Rowen cracked up. Ryo hated the cold and did indeed look like they could go hard at him with baseball bats and he wouldn't feel a thing. He had no idea where the Ronin leader had manage to dredge up a set of black, insulated overalls. It didn't help that Ryo had managed to stuff himself into it wearing four sweaters. Over all of this he wore a tattered parka that Mia had dug out of her closet. The fur-lined hood was pulled up close and tied shut with the drawstrings, opened just enough that he could see out. He wore so many layers it was restricting his ability to use his legs, slowing him down to a waddle. His arms were sticking out at almost 90-degree angles from his body.

No wonder it took him so long to clear the parking area.

"Dude!" Kento was laughing. "Did you actually go put more clothes on?"

"Bite me." The fact that it was muffled by a thick, ugly gray and red scarf took some sting out of the suggestion. All they could see of Ryo were his eyes, which were glaring.

"You wouldn't feel it." Kento commented as he put his shovel to the pavement.

"I . . . don't . . . like . . . to . . . be . . . cold." He emphasized each word so that his so-called friends got the point.

"You look like an Eskimo with head trauma." Kento said as he moved off, shoveling.

"Like you know anything about Eskimo fashion." Ryo yelled back. "For all you know, this could be all the rage in Beaver Nut, Canada or wherever."

"Beaver Nut, Canada?" Sage asked.

Rowen was laughing so hard at them both that his legs gave out and he fell backwards over the mound of snow he had just moved, landing in the white fluff. Across the drive, Cye wasn't faring much better. The British boy had his hands on his knees and he was gasping for air.

"I had no idea you were such a sissy." Kento chuckled, enjoying the rare rise in ire he had gotten out of Ryo. "It's a good thing Sage came to get me on Mt. Dojo. By the time you got dressed for it, Cale would have skewered my ass."

"Why don't you just go back to Mt. Dojo?" Ryo had to turn his whole body to stare at Kento, which made it all the funnier. "As matter of fact, why don't you go to-"

"Ryo." Sage spoke up. Again, Ryo had to turn his whole body to look at his comrade. Even Sage was having a hard time keeping a straight face as he shook his head as he walked over to pull Rowen out of the snow bank. "Don't let him bait you."

"Look, Ryo." From the look on his face, it was taking all of Kento's willpower not to laugh at the other boy as he spun around again to look at him as he spoke. "Why don't you go back up to the house?"

Ryo snorted. "Right. So you can hold it over my head that I didn't help? I don't think so."

"Nah. We're almost done." Kento said. There was some sympathy on his face now. "You're freezing your nubs off out here. Besides, Yuli is probably getting cold anyway."

"Nah, I'm okay." Yuli grinned from White Blaze's back as the cat trotted up to the group.

"Except you fingers, right?" Sage said, trying to get Yuli on the same page.

"No, I've got two pairs of gloves on."

Sage rolled his eyes. "How about your toes?"

Yuli stared at Sage, realizing that the older boy was expecting something from him, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what. "Wool socks."

"C'mon Yuli." Ryo laughed a little. "You can make sure I get back to the house without dying of hypothermia."

"Okay!" Without prompting, White Blaze turned and began to trek back towards the house with Yuli whooping the whole way.

"Thanks guys." Ryo's good humor seemed to be returning. "I'll boil some water. In case you guys want tea or hot chocolate or something."

"Can you do that?" Cye asked. "I mean, that is marginal cooking."

"Hey, I'm Ryo of the Wildfire. I can heat anything up."

"Like the driveway." Kento put in. "We could have been done in an hour ago."

"Not going there." Ryo grinned at the look on Sage's face and turned to waddle back up the drive.

After sparing another minute to snicker at Ryo, the other four Ronins went back to the drive. After the break, they had all found a second wind. The road was still well-covered and probably would be for most of the day. Still, they cleared to the end of the drive and made sure the mailbox was uncovered.

It felt good to stand and stretch and the four teenagers began their long walk back up to the house. It actually didn't take too long. The prospect of a duty-free day had put in extra spring in each of their steps. Barring any interruptions of the other-worldly kind, they now had a whole day to do anything or nothing. There was nothing like the freedom of a snow day.

After stowing the shovels in the garage, they made their way into the house.

Rowen pulled of his coat and cap, giving his hair a shake. "If Ryo hasn't set the kitchen alight, I vote for cocoa and TV-veggin' for awhile."

"I promised Yuli we'd go sledding." Kento reminded him.

"We should have plenty of time." Sage assured him. "Do we have a sled?"

Kento grinned. "I got something even better."

"Do I want to know?"

"Doesn't matter. It's a surprise."

Rowen pulled off his boots and looked to Cye. "Snowboards?"

"Just what I was thinkin'."

The friends made their way up the stairs, feeling the pleasing after effects of a tough job done and looking forward to a warm cup of chocolate and an hour or so of unproductivity.

Alas, it was not to be.

Ryo met them on the stairs, wide-eyed. "Retreat."

"What?" Sage asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Mia's about to go Vesuvius, man. If you value your lives head for the hills."

"What did you do?" Rowen asked.

"I swear to god, it wasn't me." Ryo held up his hands, limiting his voice to a loud whisper. "Mia was getting some tea and Yuli decided he wanted to play video games on her computer. He lost everything she typed this morning."

"Oh man." Cye said. "You didn't leave him up there to get yelled at, did you?"

"'Course not." Ryo replied. "He's in his room putting his warmer clothes on. He's totally bummed out. He's convinced Mia hates him."

"Poor little dude." Kento shook his head. "Maybe we can cheer him up. Make him forget about Mia and her PMS."

"Mia's stressed." Rowen spoke up in the lady's defense. "You'd have PMS, too, if you had put that much work into something and it was lost twice in less than four hours."

"What's 'PMS'?" The five teenagers looked up to see Yuli standing at the head of the stairs. His eyes were still puffy and red from crying, but he was now studying Rowen with a curious gaze. "I'm not gonna catch it, am I?"

Kento began to chuckle and Cye elbowed him hard in the ribs. Sage folded his arms across his chest and looked at Rowen. "Care to field that one?"

Rowen felt his mouth go dry as he looked from Sage's wry face to Yuli's expectant one. "Uh, sure. 'PMS' stands for 'Paper . . . Migraine . . . Sickness'."

He cringed inwardly, but Yuli seemed to be buying it. "Paper Migraine Sickness?"

"Yeah." Rowen let the fib come together in his head, relaxing a little. "Comes from reading too much small print. Your eyes get tired and it gives you a headache."

Yuli pondered this. "And Mia has been reading that paper of hers all morning. I bet she has really bad PMS now."

Kento squeaked as he tried to contain his guffaws. Rowen chanced a glance over his shoulder to see Ryo leaning against him, laughing silently with tears streaming down his face. Cye was biting his lip and Sage hadn't moved a muscle. He cursed them all to painful deaths.

He turned back to Yuli. "Yeah, kid. She probably does. Where'd you leave your boots?"

"In my room."

"Go get 'em and we'll go play outside."

"All right!" Yuli pounded back up the stairs and skidded around the corner to his room.

Rowen let out a breath and turned on his friends. Cye, Ryo, and Kento were in a heap on the floor, helpless from their laughter. "You guys suck."

"You lied to him." Sage spoke up just over the din.

"You saddled me with it!" Rowen shot back before putting on his 'Julia Child' voice and repeating. "Care to field this one, Rowen?"

"I'm just warning you, little white lies have a way of coming back to bite you."

"Thank you, Aesop. You explain PMS to the eight-year-old next time."

"The earlier he finds out the better." Kento said as he disentangled himself from Ryo and Cye and proceeded to pull each of them to their feet. "It'll make his life a helluva lot easier."

"Says the Expert on Women." Rowen scoffed.

"Hey, if anyone in this house oughta know, it'd be me."

"Care to compare score cards?" Rowen asked as he sat down on the steps and began pulling his boots back on.

"Whip it out." Kento challenged

"Whoa!" Ryo reached up to grab his coveralls. "There will be no 'whipping out' of anything in my presence."

"Hey, Nanuck. You aren't going back outside. What's with the snowsuit?" Cye asked.

"They are insulated overalls." Ryo countered, beginning to pull them on. "And if you think I'm staying in here with Mia and her 'Paper Migraine Sickness', you're insane."

After a five minute conversation in which Rowen, Cye, Kento, and Sage convinced Ryo that playing in the snow would be much more fun if he could actually . . .move, Yuli rejoined them with White Blaze in tow and they headed back to the garage. Immediately, Kento trotted to an obscure corner behind Mia's car. "Looky here!"

The rest of them looked on as he came up with an exceptionally large inner tube, the kind made for two people but which many people frequently tried to fit significantly more on. Ryo raised an eyebrow, "Where'd you get that?"

"Catalog." Kento grinned. "When Blue Boy said it was gonna snow, I figured we needed to be prepared."

Rowen ignored the 'Blue Boy' comment. "The rest of us were worried about milk, eggs, and toilet paper. Thank heavens for Kento's insight."

"Come on, guys. I'll tow you up the hill with the four-wheeler." While Kento moved over to the large machine, Ryo and Sage found some climbing rope, tying it around tube. Cye and Rowen rounded up their snowboards and goggles before following the others out.

Kento pulled the four-wheeler into the snow and waited while Sage tied it to the sturdy undercarriage. The large warrior pulled Yuli on to the vehicle in front of him. "Climb on, boys!"

Rowen and Cye glanced at each other before stepping into their snowboards and locking their feet in. Each of them grabbed the rack attached to the rear of the machine. Sage and Ryo flopped down into the inner-tube. Ryo looked up to Kento. "We're not going to put a hole in it, are we?"

"Are you kidding?" Kento revved the engine on the four-wheeler. "They've tested that thing over some of the roughest terrain on the planet."

"A snow tube?" Sage asked. "They actually paid someone – whoa!"

He was cut off by Kento pulling forward. The rope jerked just enough to nearly send Sage flying off. He held on though, making a face at Ryo as the other boy laughed. Rowen looked back to see White Blaze still sitting in the driveway, looking as if he were trying to decide if he really needed to go. Apparently, he concluded that they were in desperate need of supervision because he bounded over the snow bank and trotted after them.

Kento drove slowly and easily up the rolling hills just behind Mia's house, keeping everyone's safety in mind. Rowen looked down, concentrating on not fouling his board on the monstrously-treaded tire. The snow floated under his feet and he gently shifted his weight, using the ride up the hill as an opportunity to get a feel for his edges.

Finally, Kento pulled the machine to a stop. "Whoa."

Rowen looked up and had to smile. A blanket of white was laid before them, completely undisturbed. It flowed gently on the curves of the hills, giving them at least a half a mile of running room before they would come to the lake. It was quiet and still, and really quite beautiful.

He couldn't wait to tear into it.

Sage reached over and pulled loose the knot he had used to secure the tube to the four-wheeler. "Shall we then?"

"Yeah!" Yuli scrambled off the four-wheeler and helped Sage pull the inner-tube to a good starting spot on the hill.

"All right, guys. I got it all planned out." Kento said, standing at the top of the hill, hands on his hips. "If I've got the angle of the take-off correct, we should be able to-hey!"

Sage, Yuli, and Ryo had chosen to ignore this undoubtedly impressive and in-depth analysis of the physics of snow tubing. The warriors had shared a glance behind Kento's back, motioned for Yuli to climb aboard, and then gotten a running start before each of them had thrown themselves on the tube. Beside Rowen, White Blaze cocked his head and watched with a contemplative air as his master flew off over the snow.

"Not cool!" Kento called after them, mounting the four-wheeler again and starting it. "I was supposed to christen the damn thing!"

Snow flew as Kento took off after the trio. Above the motor, Cye and Rowen could hear the voices of their friends yelling and whooping as the tube picked up speed. One voice in particular carried above all the rest. Cye grinned. "Is that Sage?"

"Whaddya know? He is alive." Rowen exclaimed. He loved Sage like a brother, but sometimes it seemed that he had the emotional range of tube of toothpaste. "Are we going to stand here all day?"

"Meet you at the bottom, mate."

Rowen pulled his goggles down over his eyes and pushed off. These hills were nothing compared to what he used to board back home. His Ski Club at school had taken quite a few trips to nearby ski resorts, some that had boasted some of the wickedest hills in the Eastern United States. Cye's experience mirrored his own. His family had taken trips to Switzerland and Germany on a regular basis. Aside from that, Cye's surfing experience translated well to snowboarding. Rowen glanced sideways, watching his friend move easily back and forth, shifting his weight and using his edges.

Rowen concentrated on picking up speed, allowing the loops of his serpentine pattern to be shallower than he normally would. The wind whistled in his ears as the board rode the snow, making a pleasing _swoosh-swoosh _noise as he turned.

Ryo, Sage, and Yuli had skidded to a stop on the lake and were just beginning to pick themselves up. The lake had been frozen for weeks, thanks to the string of nights when the thermometer had dipped well below zero. There was no concern that they would fall through.

Rowen crossed behind Cye, turning the board beneath him so that it was perpendicular to the slope. Leaning back, he skidded the board to a stop beside Kento, who sat on his four-wheeler, yelling at the top of his lungs, calling the marauding trio a variety of colorful names. Well, as colorful as he could get since Yuli was one of them. "You're a bunch of tube-stealing toad-lickers!"

Ryo put a hand over his heart dramatically. "You've wounded me."

Yuli giggled. "You're turn next, Kento."

"You're darn right."

And so they spent the next couple of hours tubing, boarding, or four-wheeling down the hill and then towing everyone back to the top. Ryo spent a little time rolling around with White Blaze in the snow. His objections to the cold earlier were long forgotten as he tossed snowballs at his companion and jumped on him, not unlike Yuli had earlier. The tiger growled playfully and cuffed Ryo with a gentle paw, sprawling him in the snow and licking his face. Ryo laughed as he wriggled away from the tiger and immediately came back for more.

Rowen took a couple of rides on the tube, letting Sage have a go at the snowboard. The blonde swore up and down that he had never attempted the feat before, but Rowen had serious doubts. When he looked up from climbing off the tube with Kento and Cye, Sage was coasting to an easy stop, looking for all the world like he had been born on a board. Ryo gave it whirl once, but after hitting his ass three times and nearly running into a tree, he conceded defeat, saying "I don't even watch skiing on T.V., Rowen."

"My butt is cold." Kento finally announced.

Rowen had to admit that he, too, was getting cold. A quick look at his watch told him that they had probably been gone long enough for Mia to have calmed down. "Let's get some lunch and take a break. Maybe we can come out again later."

The others agreed and together they began to follow the shore of the lake and head for home. Sage and Cye had opted to hike back with Rowen, watching as Kento towed Yuli and Ryo in the snow tube back towards the house, the boy giggling the whole way. As they watched, Kento took a detour up the hill, apparently taking the scenic route back.

"We should have told them to be quiet going in." Cye spoke up. "We don't want to disturb Mia."

"I'm sure Ryo will remind the other two." Sage said as they trudged through the snow. "From what Ryo told me, Mia really let Yuli have it."

"I'm kinda worried about her, ya know?" Rowen said. "I mean, I know her dissertation is important, but she's been holed up in her study for weeks. Can't be healthy."

"We should have asked her to come out with us." Rowen and Sage looked over at him. He glanced back. "What?"

"Were you gonna go in there and bother her when she was breathing fire?" Rowen asked. "You're a better man than I, Gunga din."

"I wasn't volunteerin'" Cye clarified. "We could have drawn straws or something."

"Well, the least we can do is fix her some lunch and offer for her to come out with us later this afternoon." Rowen said, adjusting the snowboard slung over his shoulder. "She's our friend and she's having a rough time of it right now. Maybe we could brighten her up a little."

Kento pulled up to the garage just after Sage, Cye, and Rowen had stowed their gear. Yuli and Ryo came in, carrying the tube. After stripping off their outerwear, the boys trotted up through the door leading into the house in nothing more than long underwear. Sage gave a quiet, but stern warning for everyone to keep the noise down. Together, they headed for the kitchen, each keen for a something to drink after playing so hard outside.

Cye reached for the light switch and flicked it on. The lights in the fixture above immediately came on and then immediately flicked off. "What the-"

"What did you do?" Kento asked accusingly.

Cye made a face at him. "I turned on the light."

"You broke it."

"I did not."

"Did too."

Rowen ignored the argument and looked to the digital clock on the microwave. The screen was blank. "Guys. The power is off."

"Think we tripped a breaker?" Sage suggested.

"I don't think so." Rowen replied. "We've never had that problem before and it's not like we overloaded the circuits. I just think the electricity is out."

"Hey Mia." The cautious tone in Ryo's voice made everyone to turn and look at the slim figure in the doorway.

The look on her face could have cracked stone. Mia was grinding her teeth and flexing her fingers, balling them into fists before forcing them straight out again. She was breathing so hard through her nose he could hear it from where he stood.

It hit him. She had lost her work for the third time. The power outage had caught her off guard and all the work she had done since they had gone outside had been lost . . . again.

"Mia? Mia, it's okay-"

Mia began to swear, using some of the foulest language available to humankind. Kento was standing nearest Yuli and promptly put his hands over the boy's ears. Sage's golden eyebrows traveled to his hairline as Cye's jaw dropped a little. Ryo's eyes grew wider as Mia, sweet, innocent Mia, went on and on without taking a breath and without repeating herself. The girl was fluent in English, Japanese, French, and several obscure languages that most people hadn't even heard of. Needless to say, she had a fairly extensive vocabulary and she was giving it a workout.

After a minute and thirty-two seconds by his watch, Rowen finally spoke up. "Mia? Mia! Spare my virgin ears!"

She stopped cold before snorting. "This is ridiculous."

"Mia," Sage stepped forward. "Look, we're sorry we've been getting in your way a little today, but I don't think that's the problem."

"It wasn't helping." She snapped back.

"I don't think you mean that." Ryo spoke up from beside the counter. "You haven't seen daylight for two weeks. You need a break from that paper."

"It's at a crucial stage!" Mia exclaimed. "If only I hadn't had to rewrite this morning. If I had saved it earlier. If the power hadn't gone out-"

Kento, who had let go of Yuli's head, put his hands back over the young boy's ears. "Yeah. If, if, IF. IF my uncle had boobs he'd be my aunt."

Mia blinked at Kento a few times as he let go of Yuli, who now looked thoroughly confused. Mia's mouth opened as she tried to compose a suitable response. She didn't manage one. Instead, she fell forward on her arms, head down on the table. For a few minutes, it was unclear whether she was laughing or crying. When she did look up again, Rowen could only conclude that she had been doing both.

"I think what Kento means," Rowen stepped forward, "is that you're not going to get that paper finished today. It ain't gonna happen. The power is out, but guess what? You've still got weeks to get it ready. Taking one day off isn't going to kill you."

"Yeah, Mia." Cye said. "C'mon. It's just a paper. It isn't worth making yourself sick over it."

"Wish you would have come outside with us." Yuli came over. "Maybe if I hadn't played with your computer, you would have come?"

Mia looked at the little boy standing in front of her and sighed as she reached out to give him a hug. "Oh, Yuli. It isn't your fault. I should have saved it. I'm sorry I yelled at you."

He snuggled into her shoulder before she let him go, smiling for the first time in as long as Rowen could remember. "Maybe this power outage is the 'Cosmic Powers That Be' telling me that I need to take a break."

No sooner were the words out of her mouth then the lights flickered and came on and he refrigerator began to hum again. Rowen grinned. "I guess they're glad you got the message."

"Loud and clear."

The seven friends spent the next hour watching cartoons and drinking cocoa in front of the fireplace. After the boys had thawed out some, they convinced Mia to come outside and have a go at the hill with them. "Don't you guys think I'm a little too old for that?"

"Nope." Kento replied immediately. "There is no age limit warning on the tube."

"Like you read it." Cye shot back.

"I didn't have to. I know in my soul."

And so Mia got dragged out to the slope where she and the boys whiled away the afternoon playing in the snow, tubing, building a snowman, and waging an all-out snowball war. And yes, on the last run of the afternoon before the sun set, all of them (except White Blaze) piled into the tube and attempted to make the run to the lake. They would have made it, except they hit the bank a little harder than on previous runs. Rowen, Kento and Mia all landed in the snow, sputtering and laughing as they tried to determine up from down. Rowen got to his feet first and offered Mia a hand. She took it and allowed him to pull her to her feet. "Thanks, Rowen. I have to admit, I feel a lot better."

He grinned. "That's the magic of a snow day, Mia."

When they made it back to the house, Mia did go and check on her computer. To her delight, the system had backed up her paper for her, saving almost everything that she had done that day. But instead of setting to work again, she carefully saved her paper and surprised them all by announcing a board-game tournament after dinner. Rowen and Cye agreed to a game of Trivial Pursuit, while Yuli announced that he was in the mood for a good game of Monopoly. Sage, Ryo, and Kento were more than happy to oblige.

Right after dinner, Yuli took his dishes to the sink and scampered up the hall. He was back in a few minutes, holding a pair of old reading glasses. With bursting excitement, he presented them to Mia. "Here Mia! These should help."

Confused, Mia took the glasses. "Well, thank you, Yuli, but I don't wear glasses. What are these supposed to help with?"

Rowen, who was beginning to wash the dinner dishes, cringed before the words left the kid's mouth. "You're PMS."

"What?"

"You're PMS." Yuli repeated, leaning in to whisper. "Rowen told me all about it."

Beside him, Kento had hung his head, trying with all his might not to laugh. Rowen helped him out and gave him something else to think about by kicking him in the shin.

Mia was still talking behind them. "He did, did he? And just how does a pair of reading glasses help with PMS?"

"My dad wears glasses when he reads the paper in the morning." Yuli reasoned. "And he never gets PMS. Maybe if you didn't have to squint so much, you wouldn't get so mad."

Behind him, he could hear the others trying (and failing) to not laugh. Rowen sighed. He was going to have to set that kid straight before his folks came to pick him up.

The End


End file.
